Ben Simmons Snubbed Warriors, Knicks To Make NBA Return With Kings
· Yahoo Sports
The Sacramento Kings have reportedly agreed to give Ben Simmons a one-year, $3.5 million deal to make his return to the NBA after last playing in the league during the 2024-25 season.
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According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, the Kings were not the only team interested in landing Simmons this summer.
“The Kings, who took Acuff at No. 7 out of Arkansas in the June draft, were reportedly interested in veterans such as Russell Westbrook (who opted to retire) and Victor Oladipo before opting for Simmons.”
“And so the latest Simmons experiment begins — again. The Kings weren’t the only team considering Simmons, as league sources say the Knicks and Warriors were also in the mix,” Amick reported.
The Kings have added Ben Simmons to provide depth at point guard behind Darius Acuff Jr. And to be fair, the Kings seem like the best option basketball-wise for Simmons to bounce back into action.
The Knicks are looking for a player to fill the 14th spot on their roster while avoiding going into the second apron. But they have plenty of depth at the point guard role behind Jalen Brunson: Miles McBride, Jose Alvarado, Tyler Kolek, and Jordan Clarkson– all four of these players can play the point guard role in Brunson’s absence.
Similarly, the Warriors, who have completed a 15-man roster for the season, already have significant depth at point guard behind Stephen Curry. De’Anthony Melton, Brandon Podziemski, Brandon Williams, and Gary Payton II can all play the same role Simmons would have been expected to play.
But on the Kings, Simmons is only behind Darius Acuff Jr. and Malik Monk, who can also play as a shooting guard. Therefore, he has the best chance to get the most minutes and cement himself as a rotation player.
So it’s no surprise he decided against pursuing a deal with either team and picked the Kings instead.
When Ben Simmons last played in the league, the three-time All-Star averaged 5.6 assists, 5.0 points, and 4.7 rebounds in 51 games while shooting 52.0% from the field for the Clippers. But this is far from how a former All-Star is expected to perform at age 30.
So it is no wonder the NBA media isn’t very pleased to see Ben Simmons get a contract with the Kings while legends like Russell Westbrook were forced to retire.
Among prominent names voicing displeasure with the deal was Stephen A. Smith, whose criticism of Ben Simmons on First Take went viral after the agreement was announced.
“What am I supposed to say? That I’m happy about it? I’ve seen one of the great, great talents at—I’m talking about a dude at 6’10”. Y’all, this is not an exaggeration: 6’10”, and he was ambidextrous.”
“The handle, the passing ability, the defensive prowess. This brother could do everything but shoot. He was something special,” Smith said at first.
“And somehow, someway, something happened to this dude’s mental, and he treated taking a shot as if you asked him to be on the front lines in Afghanistan. It made no sense whatsoever. It still makes no sense to me. But I do know this. He never missed picking up his check. He always made sure he got paid. Always made sure he got his money.”
“So now that he’s back in the league, here’s what the problem is. It’s a one-year deal. What is it, $3.5 million, Shay? Is that what you said? Here’s my question, y’all. Why isn’t he paying Sacramento? He should be paying them to let him play. He should be paying them to let him play. You see, it should be the other way around.”
“He should be the first player in the NBA who actually pays the team to let him play in an NBA uniform, considering the thievery he engaged in for a few years, disguised as an NBA player, where he was scared of his own damn shadow, but never scared to go pick up the check to get the money.”
“He should be paying them. That’s all I have to say about this, other than hopefully, with luck, someday [music] he’ll return to being that outstanding player that he was before everything went awry,” Smith further added.
A few weeks ago, Smith also voiced his displeasure with Simmons’ hopes to return when he declared in the June issue of Men’s Health magazine that he wants to return to the NBA.
“That wasn’t his problem for years. His back and his legs weren’t his problem for years. It was something else. He needs to be paying them. He needs to be donating $3.5 million to the California economy. That’s what he needs to be doing,” Smith concluded on First Take.
So it is clear that Ben Simmons is entering a semi-hostile environment in the NBA, where most fanbases don’t think he can perform at the same All-Star level he did in his prime.
Between 2018 and 2021, when Simmons earned his All-Star selections, he averaged 15.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 7.7 assists while shooting 56.0% from the field across three seasons. He is best known for his defense. Simmons was still a nightly triple-double threat in his best years.
Ben Simmons has a lot of critics to prove wrong or right this season. But rest assured, the way he plays in this one-year, $3.5 million contract could determine what’s left of Ben Simmons’ NBA career.
This could be his last chance or the comeback of a century if Simmons manages to go back to the same level of production by some miracle. It will certainly be interesting to see how Simmons responds in his bounceback season with the Kings.